Celebrated Alumni Award

With over 50,000 alumni from the Faculty of Arts, we have many alumni to be proud of. The Celebrated Alumni Award has been created to provide the Faculty of Arts an opportunity to recognize alumni who are making a difference in both their industries and in their communities.

2018 nominations run February 15 - March 19, 2018 at 8:30 a.m.!

2017 Recipients

Lourdes Juan BGs’05, Medes’10,

Juan is the founder of Hive Developments, an urban planning firm, and Soma Hammam & Spa which focuses on traditional treatments. Juan is also the founder of Leftovers Foundation, an organization which rescues food from being thrown in the garbage and ensures it gets to service agencies in need. The Leftovers Foundation benefits local agencies such as the Calgary Drop-In Centre, Calgary Interfaith Food Bank, Alpha House, Making Changes Association and Inn from the Cold.

Vincent Ho BMus’98,

Ho is the Artistic Director of Calgary’s Land’s End Chamber Music Ensemble. Most recently he was appointed as the New Music Advisor for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and theatre music. His works have been described as “brilliant and compelling” by The New York Times. His many awards have included Harvard University’s Fromm Music Commission, The Canada Council for the Arts Robert Fleming Prize, and the ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award.

2016 Recipients

Derek Beaulieu BA ’96, (English);MA ’04(English), BEd, ’08

Beaulieu is a past Calgary Poet Laureate, an instructor at ACAD, a prolific author and a champion of Calgary’s arts community. In partnership with the Calgary Chamber and Calgary Arts Development, he spearheaded the Artist in the Workplace initiative, pairing businesses that have vacant offices with artist in need of affordable spaces.

Jill Drader BGS ’05, (Development Studies)

Drader is the CEO and founder of projects that coach and mentor women who want to get started in trades, including Steel Toe Stiletto, Women in Work Boots, and the online training site Business in Work Boots. In 2014 she was included in Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 list.

Douglas Hagedorn BA ’07 (Urban Studies); MSc ’11 (Geography)

Hagedorn is the CEO of Tactalis, a tech startup he founded in 2012. The company develops tactile tablet computer systems that help blind and visually impaired individuals use digital media that they cannot see. This revolutionary technology allows users to interact with maps, apps, diagrams, games, spreadsheets and graphics.